CQ Press U.S. Foreign Policy Today: American Renewal?

This new contributed volume from Steven Hook and James Scott introduces students to the conduct of foreign policy under the Obama administration. Its twelve original essays, written by a stellar cast of experts in the field, address whether the Obama administration′s strategy represents a "renewal" of U.S. engagement. To what extent has this administration succeeded in building both the domestic and international constituencies needed to implement its foreign policy goals? How exactly have Obama′s policies regarding drone strikes, prisoner abuse, extraordinary rendition, and climate change differed from Bush-era policies? Contributors provide detailed assessments of these and many other key questions. Designed to fit easily into courses on U.S. foreign policy, the volume′s first part looks at policy formulation, while the second part tackles policy domains. An extensive bibliography makes a great student resource for further research. Review This book arrives at a time when the U.S. is reassessing its role in the world after the optimism of the 1990s, the shock of 9/11, and the ongoing challenges of a global economic downturn and two lingering wars. Its well-selected contributors assess not only the key foreign policy actors and issues two years into the Obama Presidency, but the enduring institutional, political, and international constraints that make it difficult for any President to carry out foreign policies that enjoy bipartisan support at home and success abroad. In so doing it provides a valuable resource for courses on the policy-making processes and substantive issues of contemporary American foreign policy -- Andrew Bennett Not since Abraham Lincoln entered the White House in 1861 has an incoming president inherited such a daunting agenda as Barack Obama: Two costly wars and an economy beset by the worst crisis since the Depression. The thoughtful essays in this excellent volume guide the reader through the domestic constraints his “renewal agenda” has confronted and provide an interim report on his achievements in various policy domains. This is essential background reading for understanding foreign policy during the second half of Obama’s term -- Ole Holsti This anthology by Hook and Scott is as fine a collection of original articles on foreign policy during the initial years of the Obama Administration as one can find. The authors are an all-star line up of foreign and security policy experts, and the topics cover the waterfront. The set would serve as an excellent complement to a foreign policy text, or could stand on its own, for courses on this subject. Among the anthology′s many virtues is a premium on lucid prose and the presence of a theme―an evaluation of America′s relations abroad in the last few years under President Obama―that bind the essays together -- Loch K. Johnson US Foreign Policy Today brings together leading scholars to puzzle through whether Obama can achieve the improbable renewal of American liberal internationalism. This is an indispensable guidebook for understanding the obstacles and opportunities in the American political system that work against the lofty and traditional foreign policy goals articulated so well by Obama. This volume arrives in the nick of time to help us make sense of foreign policy in this age of sharp domestic disunity. -- Laura Neack Steven Hook, James Scott and a collection of top-notch analysts have given us a careful, balanced assessment of Obama Administration foreign policy at mid-term. Required reading for those analyzing foreign policy in a divided America -- Howard Wiarda About the Author Steven W. Hook is professor of political science at Kent State University. In addition to this book, he is co-author of American Foreign Policy Since World War II (CQ Press, 2019, 21st ed., with John Spanier) and author of National Interest and Foreign Aid (Lynne Rienner, 1995). His edited books include U.S. F